Hello Jim! I'm so glad to see that you've mastered your climate challenges! I think you just may have found your path. You're a remarkable craftsman, and I wish you all the best, and I'm so glad this is looking like a great year for you and your bees.
Two bee barns complete and operational. Two more under construction. 3lb packages installed 5 weeks ago. The population built up faster than I’ve ever seen in 39 years of beekeeping. Putting supers on . Converting all my Langstroth equipment. Bravo Jim.
Hi Jim - I'm a new beekeeper in Dubai, where the temperatures can reach 50C (122F), and everything is air conditioned. Insulation is necessary to keep the bees alive through the summer. The commercial guys let them die every year and buy again the following season. Last summer I made a 2 inch thick polystyrene cover for my two Langstroth hives, top and sides with a 2 - inch gap all-round, which was fed from the top with ducted cool air from the house ! The bottom was open. They fared very well - so well that they swarmed like yours., as soon as things started to cool down... I'm interested to try a bee barn approach so that perhaps the cool air feed might not be necessary. It's not practical, and prevents inspection. Have you heard from anyone else working in hot climates?
from experience- Birch size hives are better left alone, you cant help them. If there is a good weather incoming then yeah otherwise I swear its hopeless. I am very happy with your bee barn designs, I wish I had the money and the equipment to make them but in my country-Kosovo, Its hard! Love your videos, I literally fell in love with bees when I started watching your channel, you were such a honest beekeeper showing mistakes and how to deal with them on the way, exactly what a new beekeeper needs. I wish you and your family good health, cant wait to see these colonies booming in spring.
There are ways you can probably make a thing like this using waste materials from other people stuff. Landfills, recycling old objects, etc. Insulation is more important than styrofoam, it’s conditions in a fundamental sense that matter, not the expensive materials.
New here and new to bee keeping, Just found your chan and this is exactly what I've been looking for, a way to get my bee's through winter without bringing them in to the basement like I had to do last winter when it got down below zero here in south west Ohio. Talk about walking a tight rope, try carting a two deep Langstroth down some narrow steps on a dolly, and my Queen wasn't very happy with the whole idea either lol. You Sir have definitely nailed it with the bee barn. I will scour your videos over the the next couple of weeks and start building my own. Thanks for sharing your genius.
Regardless of hive body configuration I feel it’s important to choose survivor queens/colonies that thrive in our micro climates and management styles. There’s no doubt your system allowed some colonies to overwinter that wouldn’t have, kudos for that. That said, your notes may tell you that in selection those weaker colonies should be re-queened off your nucs or from your best stock. Looking forward to how you manage your yard genetics.
Congratulations on the results. Ive spent quite some time following your journey with your hive design. I have also spent the last few weeks building 2 of my own following your latest evolutiuon and I must say I enjoyed the process of building them. They will be ready for package install next week. I am excited to see how they do going forward. Thank you for blazing the trail!
Hi Jim. Love the bee barn! Built one before spring this year, and the bees have made it a powerhouse. I have other hives, but like trying new ideas and yours is doing awesome. Do you have a video covering your winter prep for the barns? I have the main large body with a Queen excluder above, and 2 supers pretty full of honey above that. Do you reduce everything down to the main hive and install your plexiglass feeding box, or do something else? I’m in Michigan with similar weather to what you experience. Thanks for any help, and great job 👍
Hey Jim, something I’d recommend for 3.0 (I haven’t watched much lately I just got out of military) but look into propolis envelopes. May turn your hives from great, to phenomenal. Love your content, hoping to get back into beekeeping finally. Just bought my first house and already saving up for some equipment (sold my hives and equipment burnt in a house fire.)
Langstroth's original design was double walled and insulated with wheat chaff in winter, as well as a cushion box roof, like a Warre hive, Other than the frame and wet roof, how is this different?
congratulations, you have found out how polish people keep bees :D on your own, good job! I also keep my bees in isolated hives, no upper vents, sealed, and also have 100% survival, 6 months of winter here.
Great video and great job on the bee barn. Going to work on building one for where I'm at here in AR. However, we have HUGE black bear problems, to the point that last year a bear literally ripped one of my Apimaye hives apart... lost 13 colonies due to bears. This year I'm having to rebuild from scratch. I'm curious how the hives ended up doing in 2023 in terms of honey production? Any differences that you can see in terms of performance year over year contrasting standard langstroth hives vs the bee barn 1.0 or 2.0?
Good to see everyone’s alive! The broodminder tells you if there’s dead out anyways! 👍🏼 Looking forward to see if the 2.0 is big enough to stop them from wanting to swarm all the tjme! All my 12 hives also survived. Just painted two bee barns today, so tomorrow I’ll put bees in them. It’s pretty similar to your bee barn, but there are some small changes to make it easier to use in a arctic climate.
Rewatching these. We're in Colorado against the mountains. Without insulation, our brood does freeze. We like your 2.0. Do you put regular honey supers on them in the summer? Are you gonna do a 3.0? Keep up with the videos and thank you.
Even though I have mild winters, I feel like I need a couple of these hive boxes. Way to go on your invention. Also would like to know what hive monitoring tool you use and where to get it.
Finally bought all the materials to build my own bee barns, super exited. I have a question about "full" insulation though. In the summer, you do not insulate the supers. Is there a reason for this? Do they not become chambers of heat in the summer that the bees are unable to ventilate? would "full" insulation not cover the supers as well?
Hi Jim, Great fortune on the success of the survival of the v2.0 hives. I built 2 of these and 2 double nuc/resource hives as well, and looking forward to installing bees into them soon. I had built 8 of the v1.0 last year and have 5 of the 8 survive the winter here in N. Central Washington. Here is is the 1st of May and my area is just coming in to spring. Just now warm enough to start inspecting. I noticed during your inspection that you did not use a follower board next to the added insulation inside the hives as you did in v1.0. Did the bees not chew on this? As you kept everything close to the vest all of last year, how did the bees fare last year? Honey production? How did you manage supers on the Lyson hives? Keep up the great innovations.
Hey Mr. Jim how much would you charged for 100 frames I'm asking cause I don't have the tools to do it hope to see more videos and hope your ladies are doing well have a great day sir
You're on a high. The low will come. It always does. Riding the roller coaster of bee is a lot like Vegas. Wins and losses occur. I always edit out the dead...😂
I personally cant wait to see his low, again. I remember when almost all his colonies ddnt make it😂. Dont worry his bee barns will fix all issues!😂😂😂😂 but seriously anyone taking advice from VINO deserves to loose their bees.
Hi Jim. I built my first beebarn this spring, and it was a smashing success! My best buddy did a standard hive and his failed, and his remaining bees absconded. My question relates to how much honey I can take off the hives this season. The video makes it seem like you didn’t leave any honey supers on. I had heard that bees need around 40 pounds of honey to get through the winter. I’m just trying to confirm that I can pull all of the honey from the supers, leaving them with just the honey that is left Inside the hive itself. Cheers, Osh
All supers are removed. I check the brood box in the fall to see how much honey is stored down below. If needed, I offer them syrup, but they usually don't take much. I remove syrup after they stop taking it and seal them up in late October. For two years now, when I do finally open them up in March/April, they have consumed less than half of their honey. If they have a brood box full of honey and they are sealed with full insulation, they will be perfectly content. Glad to hear of your success!!!
Also, don't forget to test for mites right about now. I do treat with Apivar strips (3 per hive) from late September through October. I remove them on a warm day in November.
@@vinofarm Jim, A big cheers to your success / design. I’m just a worker bee over here. Tee hee. Thanks again. BTW, i’m going to start building my second hive this fall, before my garage gets cold. My intention is to use the zip system sheathing along with the zip tape. The bonus there is that the insulated panels are attached to OSB with an applied membrane, which makes it water resilient, and it provides a tough outer layer. I had some left over from a job, so there’ll be a BeeBarn 2.01 in a month or so.
Would you recommend the same design and amount of insulation for a southern climate (Tennessee) with less harsh winter weather? Perhaps the wood wrapped with the foam insulation would be ok, other wise folks down here would be using a YETI with custom made frames. I really liked the The Bee Barn 1.0 design with the wood exterior, it looks more natural and appealing but I understand it's more about the Bee's than the human. Great idea and wish you best of luck with your new frame design and production.
So based off what youve said this design should also work in hotter climates right? seems like they wouldnt have to do much during most of the year except for humidity maybe.
You think i could solve winter by giving them food (an inlet into a greenhouse full of flours) you think they would be able to make honey? I guess it also depends on how much nectar they need so maybe two greenhouses? Bees confuse me so much sometimes
What is your idea besides overwintering hives in cold climate? Is it for some honey or just to see . Need to have some income or reason or just blessed
I keep bees just to keep bees. Honey is a side benefit, mostly for friends and family. My videos pay for my beekeeping, but I make no money from beekeeping. I have 13 colonies of bees and don't want any more than that.
Great results, Jim. All of them made it through Winter, all the way to April. I think BeeBarns 2.0 are amazing. No mold! You solved the water problem and the deep frames . . . I'd love to make some or find somebody to make them because the bees seem to love them. Well done!
Outstanding news Vino! You really cracked it. I don't live anywhere near that level of cold anymore but this is really uplifting to see. That small colony would have never made it without your Bee Barn, no question they are alive thanks to your efforts.
Incredible content! Im in RI and plan to build a few of these to try and match your success. Ive scoured the comments of your previous videos and havent found anything on if you solved swarming with the extra frames in the 2.0, did you still have a bunch of swarms? Srill recommend the 9 frame?
@@CBondG Swarming was an issue this season. However last year (the first year in 2.0) I had zero swarms. Kind of strange. I would definitely build them as large as you can. If I could find 10 frame boxes I liked, I’d do 10 frame bee barns. The colonies get very big.
Thanks for your time in showing us. Hope you are resting and recovering. I caught a swarm in my 6 frame lazutin swarm trap. Deeper frames than yours with no foundation. It is insulated now and in my garage. We will see if it makes it through the winter. Many thing we can do to help you?
Hello Jim,, I was told that bees can move honey up or down the hive,,, what happens with your sirup "honey" ??is it going to mix with your good honey???
Supers go on after the “brood box” (partially syrup) honey is pretty much exhausted. There’s a lot of time between the feeding of syrup and the addition of supers. It’s pretty clear when the flow starts and the supers fill up fast. I highly doubt there’s much mixing of syrup and real nectar.
@@eliast4780 You can do that. But once you work with bees for a while you can tell when flows are happening and where the bees are putting nectar. Also, my bee barn hives have dedicated brood frames. So I'm not like other beekeepers who move frames up and down in the hive. I only ever extract from super frames which go on at certain times, above queen excluders.
@@vinofarm Hi Jim, with the rapid growth and the bees coming out strong from winter, perhaps you could find a way to utilize the flow frames you got about 5 years ago?
My heart plummeted as you started to shake the bees into the really small colony, since there would really only been one outcome from that action. Giving brood frames with bees still on them is fine…in most cases if you place them on colonies that’s has at least a few frames of bees, and you place the brood frame atleast a frame or two away from the queen. On baseball colonies? That’s roulette gambling on the highest level right there. I have boosted hundreds upon hundreds of smaller colonies over the years and I always cage the queen in nico cages, fill the hole with candy just enough so they can chew it out in a day. This ensures 99% success rate (bees being bees makes no method 100% 😅). Worked very well for me and makes sure the queens live long enough for me to replace her in a month or two 👍
Hey, Jim. I've just received my Lyson boxes to start building a Barn. Question about how you're treating for mites now. I was watching the "Is Apivar Enough? (Mite Kill Results)" video on how the pipe extension for OAV clogged up. Are you still trying OAV, and through the entrance? Does it melt the insulation? I use an InstantVap on my current hives and I'm considering building a dedicated (but temporary) top shim to vape from the top down. Just wanted your opinion. Thanks!
It's sealed shut all the time EXCEPT for the few weeks per year in the fall when I have feed buckets on. There are never any openings the bees can leave through and never any upper ventilation.
Thank you. I was trying to see on the video and couldn't quite confirm. Thanks for your time. Our two packages of bees are living their best life in the bee barns. So worth the start up investment of time. Waiting to see if up change anything in 3.0 before we build more.
I’m so proud of myself - I saw the Beech queen before you, and that’s all thanks to your excellent teaching over the past few years. And this was a really great winter to test out the bee barns; it was cool, but we did have really weird cycles of cold/warmer than it should be/cold/OMFGCOLD, and then this past week we went from freezing to the high 80s. The fact everyone lived and mostly so well really does prove out this concept.
I’m also in Minnesota, didn’t build bee barns per se because I was waiting for Jim to put out his “how to build” videos on the 2.0 version. I did super insulate with 3” pink insulation board on all sides, top, and bottom. No upper entrance. No landing board so snow wouldn’t plug the entrance. All four hives survived, two very strong and two weak - but live bees in them all! I’ll be building bee barns this summer. Good luck to ya!
Gidday Jim, from New Zealand. Mate I have followed your journey from the beginning and I must say, hand on heart, I am so impressed with your innovative responses to your observations. The Beebarn is probably the most perfect man made beehive that I have ever seen so kudos to you for the design and manufacture of the Beebarn. I hope to be able to convert our home apiary over to Beebarns when I can find some spare time to do so. Hard to do when working 16 hours a day at the moment. Best regards and keep up the great work Daz
I built top insulation based on Etienne Tardif's designs, paired with a bee blanket, 13/15 hives survived 1 is small, but a vast majority are REALLY strong. Great insulation makes a HUGE difference 🙂
Hi Jim. Love your videos and your bee barn design. Just a quick question. Is the orientation of the frames towards the entrance of the hive of any importance? I've noticed your frames are parralel to the entrance and on other hives the frames are perpenducular to the entrance.
Hello, I have built two Bee Barns and so far, so good. Inspections are definitely easier. I have a question for you, how/when do you reduce your frames down to 6 or 7 before winter?
Hey Jim. Curious about your feeder setup. I saw the mason jar in the video. Do you use any other style of top feeder? I installed the first of 2 incoming packages in my 2 Bee Barns two weeks ago and they are rocking right along. Had eggs and larvae when I checked on them at 12 days even with the colder than average temps down here this spring. Off to a good start it seems. Thanks again for all the work you have done with these videos, they have been a great motivation for me to give this a try.
When you said, "This is the way." I thought of The Mandalorian. Good stuff, Jim. 100% survival is great. I lost 1 of 11, so 91%. Have you made any progress on the frame build? Bet it felt good to open up the colonies.
🐝🇺🇸🐝 Jim, I'm so glad for you and your great success. Your respect for the life of our noble life partners is very heartwarming. I'm fighting a swarm problem that is unbelievable and I hope that you will have yours under control from the get-go ❓ We're still heading 30° nights here in 7A but the days are close to 80°.... Any news on the frame production yet?? Have you caught the last news from Dr Zachary lamas and also Dr.David Peck, Concerning the revelation about drone mite control research. I believe we've been checking in the wrong place and it seems there's going to be a paradigm shift in the science. All the information sure makes a lot of sense. GOD Bless 📖🛐✈️🐝🐝🐝
Great job. One advice, when you add nurse bees to a weak hive, shake the bees on the far end of the hive. This will give them time to get use to the hive. Again, GREAT JOB.
Fantastic Jim. I am really happy for you and your bees. I too had 100% survival two years in a row and I’m going into my third year of beekeeping. Insulation works! I have insulation on five sides of each hive, no upper entrance. I am currently using the Vivaldi boards with burlap, and probably will continue doing so until I build my own beebarns.
I’ve followed your progress for many years. The ups & downs have been enjoyable content to watch. Congrats on the success of BeeBarn 2.0. Excellent design.
I noticed that you don't wear gloves. Your bees seem pretty calm. Do you think it is because they are not stressed and they have all they need? I am a new beekeeper and I have a full suit! It hurts to get stung! lol
Congratulations to a successful winter with the bees. Here’s to looking forward to a beautiful and productive year. As always keep doing you and everything will fall in to place. 🙌🏼
Jim, everything is looking great brother! Thank you so much for your content. It's very helpful and entertaining. Can't wait to follow along with you this season. And hopefully, you have some new sourdough videos on the back burner. I kept my starter alive for almost a year but I need to "restart" with a new one. Hope everything else in your world is going well.
Go vinooooo love you from italy, I want to use your methods in my beekeeping activity, but here is very difficult, we have dandant beehive so I need to find a solution, thx, you gave a future to beekeeping, go on with great inventions (or just adapt this one to dandant beehive 😏😉😂😂) hope to see more of your videos!
thanks for the update mate... why dont you cut some insulation wool (whatever you guys call it) for the top box, would be heaps easier to put in and take out and fit a lot nicer than the two empty sacks haha
Here in Greece we use Lemon Balm Essential Oil diluted in water and sprayed all over the bees in order to merge them. The lemon balm smells like the queen bee and it calms them down. We have 100% success doing the merge this way
You cannot dilute Esential oil with water, It does not mix. The essentail Oil will just float ontop of the water. It has to be imulsified with some water and blended for about 15 minutes before it can be diluted. Other wise it will clog up the spray nozzle.
No ventilation needed in a super insulated hive. The bees use the moisture in the hive. They ventilate out of the lower entrance. 2 years of this… no issues for the bees.
@@vinofarm what about when they dry the honey any issues? So no ventilation for the winter and summer? Thanks for the reply. I'm considering a plywood box them in box and spray foam insulation, thinking it would be more cost effective. Also becou I want to use layens frames the double deep or your frames seam a little too big to handle with ease. But I can be wrong, don't know,, mainly I'm on the fence because I'm concerned about highly insulated because of concern for moisture . I caught a huge swarm it must have been an entire triple deep hive , they hardly all fit in a in to a nuce without frames and no ventilation . I drove home about 7 miles and when I opened it, it was a wet mess of dead bees about 75% dead in less then 20 minutes, what a shame... So now I'm concerned about not having ventilation.
You convinced me . Rather reassured me. Thanks. Your hives are a very elegant solution, I will try making 2 this week , looking forward to more videos , thanks for your time.
Awesome job - love the barn hives! FYI - Putting the queen cage in between the foundation panels (or a gap in the drawn comb) can lead to entombment of the queen - been there done that. Better to wedge between the wood on the top rails of two frames.
Hello from germany! Great looking hives! Nice concept! Early in the year I would not give weak hives bees from an other hive, because of robbery. We call it 'silence robbery '. This happens when the bees flyes back and told the other bees, "I found a hive with food an no defence." The weak hive thinks, our new sisters are back, but, they are taking the food instead. No fights, no signs of robbery, but the honey stores are empty in a short time. So, watch closely. Hopefully you can undestand what I am talking about. Have a nice day! Marie
I understand. But we are still in a very early part of our season. And all of the hives are flush with resources. I came back two days later to release the queen and there was no robbing happening. All is OK.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello Jim! I'm so glad to see that you've mastered your climate challenges! I think you just may have found your path. You're a remarkable craftsman, and I wish you all the best, and I'm so glad this is looking like a great year for you and your bees.
Thank you, Fred! Still a ways to go, but I do see the path. I hope your spring is springing!
Two bee barns complete and operational. Two more under construction. 3lb packages installed 5 weeks ago. The population built up faster than I’ve ever seen in 39 years of beekeeping. Putting supers on . Converting all my Langstroth equipment. Bravo Jim.
Hi Jim - I'm a new beekeeper in Dubai, where the temperatures can reach 50C (122F), and everything is air conditioned. Insulation is necessary to keep the bees alive through the summer. The commercial guys let them die every year and buy again the following season. Last summer I made a 2 inch thick polystyrene cover for my two Langstroth hives, top and sides with a 2 - inch gap all-round, which was fed from the top with ducted cool air from the house ! The bottom was open. They fared very well - so well that they swarmed like yours., as soon as things started to cool down... I'm interested to try a bee barn approach so that perhaps the cool air feed might not be necessary. It's not practical, and prevents inspection. Have you heard from anyone else working in hot climates?
from experience- Birch size hives are better left alone, you cant help them.
If there is a good weather incoming then yeah otherwise I swear its hopeless.
I am very happy with your bee barn designs, I wish I had the money and the equipment to make them but in my country-Kosovo, Its hard!
Love your videos, I literally fell in love with bees when I started watching your channel, you were such a honest beekeeper showing mistakes and how to deal with them on the way, exactly what a new beekeeper needs.
I wish you and your family good health, cant wait to see these colonies booming in spring.
There are ways you can probably make a thing like this using waste materials from other people stuff. Landfills, recycling old objects, etc. Insulation is more important than styrofoam, it’s conditions in a fundamental sense that matter, not the expensive materials.
Thanks for the update! miss your videos. GO BALBOA!!! miss that bee dance..... hehehe.....
I love seeing your growth and innovation. That first winter was a doozy, and you’ve come so far! Love your videos.
Any more bee updates?
This is the way
Hello Jim, hope you’re well? Really interested in knowing how it going with the development of the bee barn frames. Looking forward to future videos.
Thanks Jesse, my thoughts, also.
New here and new to bee keeping, Just found your chan and this is exactly what I've been looking for, a way to get my bee's through winter without bringing them in to the basement like I had to do last winter when it got down below zero here in south west Ohio. Talk about walking a tight rope, try carting a two deep Langstroth down some narrow steps on a dolly, and my Queen wasn't very happy with the whole idea either lol. You Sir have definitely nailed it with the bee barn. I will scour your videos over the the next couple of weeks and start building my own. Thanks for sharing your genius.
You're back. Yeah!!!!!
Regardless of hive body configuration I feel it’s important to choose survivor queens/colonies that thrive in our micro climates and management styles.
There’s no doubt your system allowed some colonies to overwinter that wouldn’t have, kudos for that.
That said, your notes may tell you that in selection those weaker colonies should be re-queened off your nucs or from your best stock.
Looking forward to how you manage your yard genetics.
Cheers Jim. I like Fred and the other guys, am here and applaud your success. Thanks for the tutorial other education for us all.
Am I the only one that enjoys the drama between peaceful mind and vino 😅😅. It's like watching real beekeepers of the USA. 😂
Who?
@@vinofarm That is the correct response.
Still waiting for next video
Congratulations on the results. Ive spent quite some time following your journey with your hive design. I have also spent the last few weeks building 2 of my own following your latest evolutiuon and I must say I enjoyed the process of building them. They will be ready for package install next week. I am excited to see how they do going forward. Thank you for blazing the trail!
Hi Jim, just found your channel. I’m a mass resident and I’ll be following your channel !
Hi Jim. Love the bee barn! Built one before spring this year, and the bees have made it a powerhouse. I have other hives, but like trying new ideas and yours is doing awesome. Do you have a video covering your winter prep for the barns? I have the main large body with a Queen excluder above, and 2 supers pretty full of honey above that. Do you reduce everything down to the main hive and install your plexiglass feeding box, or do something else? I’m in Michigan with similar weather to what you experience. Thanks for any help, and great job 👍
nice clip insert lol that was great
Cheer ! you got to save the bees.
Hey Jim, something I’d recommend for 3.0 (I haven’t watched much lately I just got out of military) but look into propolis envelopes. May turn your hives from great, to phenomenal.
Love your content, hoping to get back into beekeeping finally. Just bought my first house and already saving up for some equipment (sold my hives and equipment burnt in a house fire.)
Langstroth's original design was double walled and insulated with wheat chaff in winter, as well as a cushion box roof, like a Warre hive, Other than the frame and wet roof, how is this different?
Is vino farms going to make another video?
congratulations, you have found out how polish people keep bees :D on your own, good job!
I also keep my bees in isolated hives, no upper vents, sealed, and also have 100% survival, 6 months of winter here.
Thanks.
Great video and great job on the bee barn. Going to work on building one for where I'm at here in AR. However, we have HUGE black bear problems, to the point that last year a bear literally ripped one of my Apimaye hives apart... lost 13 colonies due to bears. This year I'm having to rebuild from scratch.
I'm curious how the hives ended up doing in 2023 in terms of honey production? Any differences that you can see in terms of performance year over year contrasting standard langstroth hives vs the bee barn 1.0 or 2.0?
*All in unison* This is the way.
The Monty Python bit had me in stitches. Congrats on the colony survival rates!
Ikr I'm dying here lol
I think I'll go for a walk!
Good to see everyone’s alive! The broodminder tells you if there’s dead out anyways! 👍🏼
Looking forward to see if the 2.0 is big enough to stop them from wanting to swarm all the tjme!
All my 12 hives also survived. Just painted two bee barns today, so tomorrow I’ll put bees in them. It’s pretty similar to your bee barn, but there are some small changes to make it easier to use in a arctic climate.
I'd like to know what modifications you've made.
Rewatching these. We're in Colorado against the mountains. Without insulation, our brood does freeze. We like your 2.0. Do you put regular honey supers on them in the summer? Are you gonna do a 3.0? Keep up with the videos and thank you.
Even though I have mild winters, I feel like I need a couple of these hive boxes. Way to go on your invention. Also would like to know what hive monitoring tool you use and where to get it.
Broodminder.com
Finally bought all the materials to build my own bee barns, super exited. I have a question about "full" insulation though. In the summer, you do not insulate the supers. Is there a reason for this? Do they not become chambers of heat in the summer that the bees are unable to ventilate? would "full" insulation not cover the supers as well?
The insulation is to keep the *brood* at a stable temp during the summer and the cluster temp stable in the winter.
Hi Jim, Great fortune on the success of the survival of the v2.0 hives.
I built 2 of these and 2 double nuc/resource hives as well, and looking forward to installing bees into them soon. I had built 8 of the v1.0 last year and have 5 of the 8 survive the winter here in N. Central Washington. Here is is the 1st of May and my area is just coming in to spring. Just now warm enough to start inspecting.
I noticed during your inspection that you did not use a follower board next to the added insulation inside the hives as you did in v1.0. Did the bees not chew on this?
As you kept everything close to the vest all of last year, how did the bees fare last year? Honey production? How did you manage supers on the Lyson hives?
Keep up the great innovations.
Hey Mr. Jim how much would you charged for 100 frames I'm asking cause I don't have the tools to do it hope to see more videos and hope your ladies are doing well have a great day sir
Where do you get that stainless dial for top cover plate. Luv the polystyrene hive idea
When will this be available for purchase? I am so amazed and thankful for your long hard work! Very much appreciate! Thank you!
You're on a high.
The low will come.
It always does.
Riding the roller coaster of bee is a lot like Vegas. Wins and losses occur.
I always edit out the dead...😂
I don’t edit out the dead.
I personally cant wait to see his low, again. I remember when almost all his colonies ddnt make it😂. Dont worry his bee barns will fix all issues!😂😂😂😂 but seriously anyone taking advice from VINO deserves to loose their bees.
Balboa is a lineage you cannot lose! Do you still have nukes from this line?
Hi Jim. I built my first beebarn this spring, and it was a smashing success! My best buddy did a standard hive and his failed, and his remaining bees absconded. My question relates to how much honey I can take off the hives this season. The video makes it seem like you didn’t leave any honey supers on. I had heard that bees need around 40 pounds of honey to get through the winter. I’m just trying to confirm that I can pull all of the honey from the supers, leaving them with just the honey that is left Inside the hive itself. Cheers, Osh
All supers are removed. I check the brood box in the fall to see how much honey is stored down below. If needed, I offer them syrup, but they usually don't take much. I remove syrup after they stop taking it and seal them up in late October. For two years now, when I do finally open them up in March/April, they have consumed less than half of their honey. If they have a brood box full of honey and they are sealed with full insulation, they will be perfectly content. Glad to hear of your success!!!
Also, don't forget to test for mites right about now. I do treat with Apivar strips (3 per hive) from late September through October. I remove them on a warm day in November.
@@vinofarm Jim, A big cheers to your success / design. I’m just a worker bee over here. Tee hee. Thanks again.
BTW, i’m going to start building my second hive this fall, before my garage gets cold. My intention is to use the zip system sheathing along with the zip tape. The bonus there is that the insulated panels are attached to OSB with an applied membrane, which makes it water resilient, and it provides a tough outer layer. I had some left over from a job, so there’ll be a BeeBarn 2.01 in a month or so.
Would you recommend the same design and amount of insulation for a southern climate (Tennessee) with less harsh winter weather? Perhaps the wood wrapped with the foam insulation would be ok, other wise folks down here would be using a YETI with custom made frames. I really liked the The Bee Barn 1.0 design with the wood exterior, it looks more natural and appealing but I understand it's more about the Bee's than the human. Great idea and wish you best of luck with your new frame design and production.
Does moving bees from one hive to another, without any preparation really work (at least consistently)?
Never hear about SHB or having to treat for varamite, is the strength of your hives solving that program 😁
We have no SHB. I treat for varroa every fall with Apivar. I have many videos about this.
This video popped up in my feed just now and i was sooooo excited to see it then i realised its an old video :(
So based off what youve said this design should also work in hotter climates right? seems like they wouldnt have to do much during most of the year except for humidity maybe.
You think i could solve winter by giving them food (an inlet into a greenhouse full of flours) you think they would be able to make honey?
I guess it also depends on how much nectar they need so maybe two greenhouses?
Bees confuse me so much sometimes
The hives are rocking it. Congrats Vino Farm, the bee barn is amazing.
So awesome
What is your idea besides overwintering hives in cold climate? Is it for some honey or just to see . Need to have some income or reason or just blessed
Reacon im asking do you sell honey to friends or make splits for others with the genetics .
I only have 40 hives here in Darlington S.C. where weather plays a way different problem. I just like to have honey for my locals
I keep bees just to keep bees. Honey is a side benefit, mostly for friends and family. My videos pay for my beekeeping, but I make no money from beekeeping. I have 13 colonies of bees and don't want any more than that.
Great results, Jim. All of them made it through Winter, all the way to April. I think BeeBarns 2.0 are amazing. No mold! You solved the water problem and the deep frames . . . I'd love to make some or find somebody to make them because the bees seem to love them. Well done!
Hey Jim, any bee barn 3.0 updates? You’ve been quiet, that usually means you’re working on something interesting.
Hope life’s treating you well!
There will be updates this spring. Bees are all fine!
Outstanding news Vino! You really cracked it. I don't live anywhere near that level of cold anymore but this is really uplifting to see. That small colony would have never made it without your Bee Barn, no question they are alive thanks to your efforts.
Incredible content! Im in RI and plan to build a few of these to try and match your success. Ive scoured the comments of your previous videos and havent found anything on if you solved swarming with the extra frames in the 2.0, did you still have a bunch of swarms? Srill recommend the 9 frame?
@@CBondG Swarming was an issue this season. However last year (the first year in 2.0) I had zero swarms. Kind of strange. I would definitely build them as large as you can. If I could find 10 frame boxes I liked, I’d do 10 frame bee barns. The colonies get very big.
Thanks for your time in showing us. Hope you are resting and recovering. I caught a swarm in my 6 frame lazutin swarm trap. Deeper frames than yours with no foundation. It is insulated now and in my garage. We will see if it makes it through the winter. Many thing we can do to help you?
Hey Mr. Jim got anything on the frames on being built to buy hope everyone is ok and doing good
Hello Jim,, I was told that bees can move honey up or down the hive,,, what happens with your sirup "honey" ??is it going to mix with your good honey???
Supers go on after the “brood box” (partially syrup) honey is pretty much exhausted. There’s a lot of time between the feeding of syrup and the addition of supers. It’s pretty clear when the flow starts and the supers fill up fast. I highly doubt there’s much mixing of syrup and real nectar.
I was told to add food grade color to syrup to tell which is the good honey.
@@eliast4780 You can do that. But once you work with bees for a while you can tell when flows are happening and where the bees are putting nectar. Also, my bee barn hives have dedicated brood frames. So I'm not like other beekeepers who move frames up and down in the hive. I only ever extract from super frames which go on at certain times, above queen excluders.
@@vinofarm Hi Jim, with the rapid growth and the bees coming out strong from winter, perhaps you could find a way to utilize the flow frames you got about 5 years ago?
My heart plummeted as you started to shake the bees into the really small colony, since there would really only been one outcome from that action.
Giving brood frames with bees still on them is fine…in most cases if you place them on colonies that’s has at least a few frames of bees, and you place the brood frame atleast a frame or two away from the queen.
On baseball colonies? That’s roulette gambling on the highest level right there.
I have boosted hundreds upon hundreds of smaller colonies over the years and I always cage the queen in nico cages, fill the hole with candy just enough so they can chew it out in a day. This ensures 99% success rate (bees being bees makes no method 100% 😅). Worked very well for me and makes sure the queens live long enough for me to replace her in a month or two 👍
Yeah, I learned that quick. Caged her right away and two days later they accepted her easy. They’re doing just fine. Thanks.
@@vinofarm oh that makes me so happy to hear.
I wish you the best for your bees, and may the honey flow!
Hey, Jim. I've just received my Lyson boxes to start building a Barn. Question about how you're treating for mites now. I was watching the "Is Apivar Enough? (Mite Kill Results)" video on how the pipe extension for OAV clogged up. Are you still trying OAV, and through the entrance? Does it melt the insulation? I use an InstantVap on my current hives and I'm considering building a dedicated (but temporary) top shim to vape from the top down. Just wanted your opinion. Thanks!
Apivar only these days.
Hey. Can you give an update how the bee barns are now?
All alive and doing fine! Three years running.
If you catch a swarm in a trap…how would you transfer them to those big frames? Enjoy your videos
During winter what do you turn your multi opening to that is on the acrylic layer. Thank you.
It's sealed shut all the time EXCEPT for the few weeks per year in the fall when I have feed buckets on. There are never any openings the bees can leave through and never any upper ventilation.
Thank you. I was trying to see on the video and couldn't quite confirm. Thanks for your time. Our two packages of bees are living their best life in the bee barns. So worth the start up investment of time. Waiting to see if up change anything in 3.0 before we build more.
I’m so proud of myself - I saw the Beech queen before you, and that’s all thanks to your excellent teaching over the past few years. And this was a really great winter to test out the bee barns; it was cool, but we did have really weird cycles of cold/warmer than it should be/cold/OMFGCOLD, and then this past week we went from freezing to the high 80s. The fact everyone lived and mostly so well really does prove out this concept.
I lost all 3 hives here in Minnesota. Moisture 😬
I’m going to rebuild my hives after your design for my new nucs😊
Thank you!
Sorry to hear about your losses. It happens. Learn from your mistakes and keep going.
I’m also in Minnesota, didn’t build bee barns per se because I was waiting for Jim to put out his “how to build” videos on the 2.0 version. I did super insulate with 3” pink insulation board on all sides, top, and bottom. No upper entrance. No landing board so snow wouldn’t plug the entrance. All four hives survived, two very strong and two weak - but live bees in them all! I’ll be building bee barns this summer. Good luck to ya!
Do you close your bottom entrance during winter or leave open just a little?
Gidday Jim, from New Zealand.
Mate I have followed your journey from the beginning and I must say, hand on heart, I am so impressed with your innovative responses to your observations. The Beebarn is probably the most perfect man made beehive that I have ever seen so kudos to you for the design and manufacture of the Beebarn. I hope to be able to convert our home apiary over to Beebarns when I can find some spare time to do so. Hard to do when working 16 hours a day at the moment.
Best regards and keep up the great work
Daz
I built top insulation based on Etienne Tardif's designs, paired with a bee blanket, 13/15 hives survived 1 is small, but a vast majority are REALLY strong. Great insulation makes a HUGE difference 🙂
Do you sell your boxes?
Hi Jim. Love your videos and your bee barn design. Just a quick question. Is the orientation of the frames towards the entrance of the hive of any importance? I've noticed your frames are parralel to the entrance and on other hives the frames are perpenducular to the entrance.
All my frames are facing "north/south" just like any regular Langstroth.
Hello, I have built two Bee Barns and so far, so good. Inspections are definitely easier. I have a question for you, how/when do you reduce your frames down to 6 or 7 before winter?
Hey Jim. Curious about your feeder setup. I saw the mason jar in the video. Do you use any other style of top feeder? I installed the first of 2 incoming packages in my 2 Bee Barns two weeks ago and they are rocking right along. Had eggs and larvae when I checked on them at 12 days even with the colder than average temps down here this spring. Off to a good start it seems. Thanks again for all the work you have done with these videos, they have been a great motivation for me to give this a try.
When you said, "This is the way." I thought of The Mandalorian. Good stuff, Jim. 100% survival is great. I lost 1 of 11, so 91%. Have you made any progress on the frame build? Bet it felt good to open up the colonies.
Only one loss is awesome, Brian. Great job.
🐝🇺🇸🐝
Jim,
I'm so glad for you and your great success.
Your respect for the life of our noble life partners is very heartwarming.
I'm fighting a swarm problem that is unbelievable and I hope that you will have yours under control from the get-go ❓
We're still heading 30° nights here in 7A but the days are close to 80°....
Any news on the frame production yet??
Have you caught the last news from Dr Zachary lamas and also Dr.David Peck,
Concerning the revelation about drone mite control research.
I believe we've been checking in the wrong place and it seems there's going to be a paradigm shift in the science. All the information sure makes a lot of sense.
GOD Bless
📖🛐✈️🐝🐝🐝
You should do a collab with Ian of Canadian Beekeeper blog……
@16:52 "I wasn't carrying hives inside of houses, I wasn't out there heating the hives..." I see what you did there, lol 🙂. PM
Great job. One advice, when you add nurse bees to a weak hive, shake the bees on the far end of the hive. This will give them time to get use to the hive. Again, GREAT JOB.
57 degrees Fahrenheit
13.8 degrees Celsius
Hi Jim...I´m confused. All you did was to enlarge the frame?
Larger frames with un-broken comb area, complete, year-round insulation, no upper vents or insulation, larger brood cavity.
ruclips.net/video/rBa2GAUtDag/видео.htmlsi=-kWq46VrK8dKQeK_&t=231
Can I put a flow hive on top of a bee barn?
Yes. It’s a regular Langstroth at the top where you add supers.
Fantastic Jim. I am really happy for you and your bees. I too had 100% survival two years in a row and I’m going into my third year of beekeeping. Insulation works! I have insulation on five sides of each hive, no upper entrance. I am currently using the Vivaldi boards with burlap, and probably will continue doing so until I build my own beebarns.
Congratulations!
I’ve followed your progress for many years. The ups & downs have been enjoyable content to watch. Congrats on the success of BeeBarn 2.0. Excellent design.
I noticed that you don't wear gloves. Your bees seem pretty calm. Do you think it is because they are not stressed and they have all they need? I am a new beekeeper and I have a full suit! It hurts to get stung! lol
Congratulations to a successful winter with the bees. Here’s to looking forward to a beautiful and productive year. As always keep doing you and everything will fall in to place. 🙌🏼
The proof is in the pudding, and this pudding is looking really good ! Congrats !
Where do you buy your Brood Minders? I’m looking to buy some
Broodminder.com
Jim, everything is looking great brother! Thank you so much for your content. It's very helpful and entertaining. Can't wait to follow along with you this season.
And hopefully, you have some new sourdough videos on the back burner. I kept my starter alive for almost a year but I need to "restart" with a new one. Hope everything else in your world is going well.
Does anyone have the lineage spreadsheet?
Go vinooooo love you from italy, I want to use your methods in my beekeeping activity, but here is very difficult, we have dandant beehive so I need to find a solution, thx, you gave a future to beekeeping, go on with great inventions (or just adapt this one to dandant beehive 😏😉😂😂) hope to see more of your videos!
Is anyone making these to sell? I’m not that handy but would love to have a bee barn
thanks for the update mate... why dont you cut some insulation wool (whatever you guys call it) for the top box, would be heaps easier to put in and take out and fit a lot nicer than the two empty sacks haha
You own the space. Congrats
Well effing played, amazing design
Here in Greece we use Lemon Balm Essential Oil diluted in water and sprayed all over the bees in order to merge them. The lemon balm smells like the queen bee and it calms them down. We have 100% success doing the merge this way
You cannot dilute Esential oil with water, It does not mix. The essentail Oil will just float ontop of the water. It has to be imulsified with some water and blended for about 15 minutes before it can be diluted. Other wise it will clog up the spray nozzle.
Made my first bee barn from your videos and will add some bees and frame when I do my split this week. 86 here in central NJ.
You must be in Canada lol
What about ventilation moisture??
No ventilation needed in a super insulated hive. The bees use the moisture in the hive. They ventilate out of the lower entrance. 2 years of this… no issues for the bees.
@@vinofarm what about when they dry the honey any issues? So no ventilation for the winter and summer? Thanks for the reply. I'm considering a plywood box them in box and spray foam insulation, thinking it would be more cost effective. Also becou I want to use layens frames the double deep or your frames seam a little too big to handle with ease. But I can be wrong, don't know,, mainly I'm on the fence because I'm concerned about highly insulated because of concern for moisture . I caught a huge swarm it must have been an entire triple deep hive , they hardly all fit in a in to a nuce without frames and no ventilation . I drove home about 7 miles and when I opened it, it was a wet mess of dead bees about 75% dead in less then 20 minutes, what a shame... So now I'm concerned about not having ventilation.
@@samsungtv4u I have been monitoring humidity in my hives for two years straight. There have been no moisture spikes of any concern in that time.
You convinced me . Rather reassured me. Thanks. Your hives are a very elegant solution, I will try making 2 this week , looking forward to more videos , thanks for your time.
It looks like you have 7 frames in your "bee barns" with a polystyrene follower board? If so, what is the reason to not have 8 frames?
How to you spin that
You don't. These are brood frames for the brood box. The hives are supered with normal supers and those super frames are harvested and spun normally.
@vinofarm wow. What city u in. Maybe I can come by and and work for knowledge. I live in peabody
Congratulations! My favorite beekeeper by far. I think you have revolutionized beekeeping.
Kudos! I absolutely love your videos! They are so informative = I'm learning so much!
Awesome job - love the barn hives! FYI - Putting the queen cage in between the foundation panels (or a gap in the drawn comb) can lead to entombment of the queen - been there done that. Better to wedge between the wood on the top rails of two frames.
She was only in there for a couple days and all was fine. Thanks Don!
Thank you for the update. Looking great! This is the way (to keep bees).
Hello from germany! Great looking hives! Nice concept!
Early in the year I would not give weak hives bees from an other hive, because of robbery. We call it 'silence robbery '. This happens when the bees flyes back and told the other bees, "I found a hive with food an no defence." The weak hive thinks, our new sisters are back, but, they are taking the food instead. No fights, no signs of robbery, but the honey stores are empty in a short time. So, watch closely.
Hopefully you can undestand what I am talking about. Have a nice day! Marie
I understand. But we are still in a very early part of our season. And all of the hives are flush with resources. I came back two days later to release the queen and there was no robbing happening. All is OK.
A new video!!!
It's good to see the bees again!